undue speed, as if the outcome had been decided. The Lubbers Hospital was on a bluff above the river, with a circular drive in front of the emergency- room entrance. Two men and two women stood in the cold waiting for the ambulance. They watched its progress up the drive, and when the ambulance braked in the orange light they leaped to wor k, all eight hands grabbing for the doors; there was a chaotic bumping of his son's body as they extract- ed the gurney. All of them had disappeared by the time Craig got out. He went into the anteroom and they weren't there. Waiting people blinked in his direc- tion. He put his face to a narrow window in one E.R. door and saw them all, plus a few new people, bunched around Randy like a family at dinner. He wanted to get a look at his son's face, but that was the focus of attention in the room and most of the medical personnel were clustered there, blocking his view. He was amazed that he remem- bered almost nothing of the hospital, although he had been there the night before. A man in a Red Sox cap was us- ing the waiting room's only working pay phone. Craig thought the inten- sity of his longing to get in touch with Francie would be transmitted to the man, persuading him to hang up, but Craig stood within a yard of the man's broad back for nearly fifteen min- utes thinking black and dangerous thoughts, and still the man gabbed on. He went to a vending machine and bought a cup of coffee, black. The challenges of having one good hand had worn thin for him: he was in pain. He carried the coffee by his fingertips back to the E.R. window and peered inside. Everyone was gone: doctors, nurses, his son. He pushed the door far enough open to insert his head, and a nurse at a table hidden to him from outside asked him firmly to remain in the waiting room. He asked about Randy Brennan, and she promised to have the doctor speak to him when ...----r < .:1 , - " ,',' ! '. -. \;' ' 41 @ "-..../ , \ ' . #, .. .# : f. : . I" '" ., í j . \ ,.,' .. ,... ."..11."'( /" .....:. "j ''IAJ ". $. þ,/I "" ... t"A., t . ,____//I -: "- \, .. A' t: F :) , - ,' I U' ' co Oò :." .:.....:...-.;.;....... .-' . ; f ,...,0:' n::z:t l <?""",,' .\\ ,v , -..I T ...... ... "I11III "- , .0 .'., " .,., " \ "N ow for the high point of the evening-a videotape of my elevation to regional director of marketing." . there was useful information to im- part. When the coffee had cooled enough to hold in his palm, he approached the man on the phone. "I'll give you this coffee if I can use the phone," he said. The man looked with some impa- tience at Craig and covered the mouthpiece with his hand, as though the other party had sensibilities too fragile to overhear the exchange to come. "I'm on the phone," he said. "I need to reach my wife. My son's been hurt." The man tipped back his Red Sox cap and looked into the coffee cup. "You already drank some. I saw you." "N 0, it was too hot. I haven't touched it." "I take cream." "Let me buy you a cup," Craig said.. He put the coffee down on a bench and searched in his pocket for some change. "This call is important," the man said. "My Pearl just had a baby." "Congratulations. I'll buy you cof- fee with cream," Craig said, "and I'll pay for you to call back whoever you're talking to." The man huhg up without a word . of explanation to the other party, and Craig stacked change in his hand. Francie was not at home. Glynnis answered, sounding young, and ner- vous about being alone in a dark house always threatening to tip over. "Where are you?" she asked with a pout in her . VOIce. "I'm at work," he said. "Where's Mom?" "Volleyball practice. Are you at the Sundial? " "Yeah. Have you talked to Mom?" "I looked in there for you and they told me you had left." "I went out. But now I'm back." "Can I come down and sit with you until Mom gets home?" "I'm working, honey. It's not a place for you." "I don't like being alone," Glynnis said. "It's dark in all the rooms" "Y ou know how to turn on the lights," he said. "Make yourself some cocoa and turn on the TV. Mom'll be home before you know it." "Do you want her to call you?" "Read me the gym-office number there," he asked. His daughter was quiet as she searched the sheet of numbers taped to